With raging success, you can always count on one thing: copycats and rivals. Okay, so maybe that's two, but you catch the drift here. Not long after Amazon launched its Kindle 2 to much fanfare, Hearst
confessed that it was looking to produce a competitor with a screen that was about the size of a standard sheet of paper. In a presumed effort to keep up with the Joneses,
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Amazon is
looking to develop yet another Kindle (something we've
definitely heard before) with "a larger screen," which would obviously help it appeal to newspaper companies looking to easily transition their content to a large form factor e-reader. Not surprisingly, Amazon refused to comment on the "speculation," but the report did note that there was at least some chance that the newfangled device would debut before the 2009 holiday season.
[Thanks, bo3of]
posted Apr 10th 2009 7:58PM
Eh, Color would be nice. But a bigger screen would probably be equally nice.
Any nice improvement on an already nice product would be nice.
Yeah forget about size, color me blue.
I'd be happy with a screen that has the same dimensions as a paperback book.
Christ what is it with Endgaget and the Kindle, article after article. Funny no one has brought that up before. You sure can bet that when the iPhone is brought up people are ready to jump on so called Engadget fanboyism.
The last Kindle article was 5 days ago.
Ok, so tell me what are the other e-book readers that have been active in the news lately with announcements and such.
Uh-oh, an Apple fantard annoyed by a nice looking Zune HD, successful Microsoft ads dissing his beloved brand and now the first Kindle post in weeks.
You know, you could always go back a few weeks and find the dozen or so posts Engadget squeezed out of the crappy iPod Shuffle - bet you didn't complain back then.
And on-topic: a Kindle without the keyboard, less bezel (just enough to hold it comfortable, and only on one side) and basically an all-screen front + stylus-enabled touchscreen for taking notes would be great!
lol im not an Apple fanboy. Im in the market for a new phone and the iPhone isnt even a consideration, its a toss up between the Nokia E71 and the 5800.
And i hate the shuffle, any article on that device is one too many.
I have seen alot of articles on the Kindle, maybe not every day, but enought to spark my comment obviously. I cant believe theyve managed to squeeze so many articles out of an e-reader.
Oh and heres why i made me comment, these are the articles which are either about the kindle or mention it (thus providing cross links to kindle stories)
11th
10th
8th
8th
5th
3rd
2nd
30th
27nd
Get my point?
Who gives a crap how often Engadget reports on what? If you wish they did things differently, either send them worthwhile tips on what you want covered, buy their parent company and dictate what they can and cannot report on, or stop reading the site. Yeesh.
What is this crap with a gadget blog writing about GADGETS all the time!?@#
I don't mind them reporting on Kindle news, but we've been hearing this rumor of a bigger Kindle for how long now? Since about 2 days after the original one came out maybe? And pretty much every article is the same:
-Someone says there will be a bigger Kindle.
-Amazon has no comment.
Maybe we can just give this rumor a rest until it gets beyond the "some un-named friend of an un-named source who has a cousin that works near an un-named Amazon warehouse said..." stage.
yeah, i would buy one if its larger!
THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!
Nice, the only thing holding me back from getting a kindle (other than lack of disposable income right now) is the screen size. The screen sucks for trying to read programming texts, if they do an 8.5" x 11" i'd seriously start budgeting for one. If they integrate Safari Books Online I bet my boss would order us some at work.
8.5" x 11" and seamless pdf support.
I would use it for technical references.
same here- but I doubt Amazon will open up PDF support as I think they are worried about PDFs eating into their revenue; currently you can download almost any ('pirated') book in PDF format from Scribd.
Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are working at getting a media reader to market. Which one do you suppose will do the job without sucking out loud? So far Amazon has showed us what they can do, and it is pitiful and lame. Apple's tablet/ebook will change the game completely. Microsoft will copy Apple, poorly, and then try to buy its way into some marketshare.
Will Apple's tablet have E-Ink? If not, it's a different device.
So why is Kindle bad? I've had mine for over a month and love it. It does everything I want it to do....be a replacement for books. I don't need color, I don't need a touch screen and I don't want a damn backlit LCD. The main reason I went with this over other ereaders is Amazon has the best selection and is most convenient as I don't have to transfer files via PC.
If I needed anything more than that I would use a laptop.
If Apple makes a 'tablet/ebook', it will will be a 'tablet mac' (costing at least $1500) and will be basically a touch-screen tablet PC computer- which was has been marketed by Microsoft since 2003. Apple is always late to the market, and they dumb-down their products for the masses (i.e. drop out features) and over-charge so people think they are getting something usefully; this works great for the average dolt that wants to 'look cool' in the food court at the mall while using their $1500 laptop -which is used only for surfing the web and checking email.
An ebook reader is nothing like a tablet pc/mac; an eBook uses 'e-ink' that uses no power once the display is set- and has no flicker to the image. An eBook can last for weeks on one charge- unlike 2-3 hours for a laptop.
Sorry for feeding the trolls everyone- I just had to show some of my 'love' for crApple....
Third time's the charm for a UK release...
I feel you, I'm still waiting for the Canadian release, I mean, it's seriously, what's so hard about releasing it across the boarder D:
Wireless data in Canada is a rip off, I doubt they'd be able to get a provider that charges a reasonable rate.
anyways get a sony reader, thats what I did :)
o great another one
I've owned a Sony Reader PRS505 for a while now, love it to bits. As I've no compulsion to upgrade it till the tech moves on significantly, I've not really studied the competition very hard. Is it still the case you can only use stuff dled from Amazon or converted by them (at a cost) on the Kindle? That'd kill the deal for me, my Reader is stuffed to the gills with *ahem* ebooks and manga.
That was never the case. You can use Stanza, Mobipocket Creator, or (my favorite) Calibre to convert PDFs to MOBI or AZW format, and then transfer them to the Kindle. The result is that they display much faster than PDFs do on the Sony PRS505 (or any of the other pdf-accepting eReaders) because they do it on the fly, and it takes a while for them to reformat.
There has recently been a hack to allow PDF conversion on-the-fly with the Kindle. I haven't bothered to use it, but reports are that it works well both with PDFs that you drop in yourself, and PDFs that you download on your Kindle from the browser.
As for other formats, The Kindle is *not* locked into Amazon's AZW format (and never was). It can natively read PRC, MOBI, TXT, AZW, MP3, and JPEG/JPG. With conversion, either through Amazon's free service or through one of the programs above, it can also handle HTML, DOC, PDF, BMP, or GIF.
The DRM restriction does go the other way, though. Amazon Kindle-formatted books are not usable on other devices (yet).
The big benefit to the Kindle over the Sony, BeBook, CyBook, and others on the market is the 3G "Whispernet" ability. I can buy and download a book from pretty much anywhere in the country, as long as there's a cell tower within range. I can hop on the Internet using the same tech, too, and it doesn't cost any extra; No subscription fees, no connection fees.
The Sony's a nice device, but if you want to buy legitimate books their eBook store is kind of sucky (especially compared to Amazon! The prices for Kindle books are frequently MUCH lower than Sony's price) and requires the user to install software on a PC running Windows. For people who want to focus on buying new books, the Kindle's a better experience.
I love my Kindle 2. It's a great e-reader, with some nice bells & whistles. Considering it's the same price as a Sony PRC505, and I get the ability to access text-based websites while on-the-go as well as getting books downloaded to my device in under 60 seconds, I think it's a good deal for anyone looking for an e-reader.
However, if you're hooked on heavy-duty PDFs, you may want to stick with the alternatives. Most conversion software loses some formatting when going from PDF to AZW, PRC, or MOBI. The Sony is better at handling a multitude of formats, even if it is a little slower in displaying the final product.
Use the tool that fits the job.
The internal PDF/EPUB converter for the Kindle is called Savory, BTW.
I applaud the effort in making it, but really it's just Calibre running on the Kindle's Linux system. I prefer to run Calibre on my laptop and convert before dumping the files in my Kindle.
I bought the Kindle 2 and returned it as the AZW and lack of PDF format sucked. The Kindle is for people that want to be able to buy a book 'on-the-go'- which was not for me.
I ended up with a PRS-505 and I love it.
If you haven't tried Calibre for converting/organizing eBooks (including support for the Sony 500/505, Kindle 1/2 and others) you should check it out- it is free and it is awesome!
I'd buy one if it displayed colors.
There aren't too many novels that have need of color. I don't miss color at all on the Kindle. (Especially considering that color e-ink is ridiculously expensive and difficult to produce right now.)
If I want to read digital comics, I'll read them on my laptop. The Kindle is good at the task it was made for.
8.5 x 11 would be a great display size - make it serve up pdf's universally and I would make it an instant electronic music stand. It would be great to replace my giant music binder with a simple electronic device.
I don't think we want a full 8.5 x 11 screen, because the device would be too large to carry around easily. They should shoot for a *device* size of 8.5x11", with the screen being at least 10" (diagonal), preferably 12". That would still be large enough to view a full page of a document formatted for 8.5x11 or A4 (i.e. most business documents, journal articles, etc). I already have a Kindle 1 and will probably skip Kindle 2, but I'd pay good money for a 12" Kindle with PDF capability.
Amazon Kindle have so many ebook to read. I have one and like it
http://savercheaper.com/amzon-kindle-book-reader-review
@zerocorpse
Aah right, cheers, I wasn't aware the Kindle was that flexible with regard to putting your own content. Like I said, after buying the Sony at launch I didn't really pay much attention to others. I knew the Whisper store was waaaaay ahead of the Sony store (which wouldn't be hard judging by the little time I've spent on the Connect store). I do buy quite a lot of books, but always hardcopys as Im still in the habit of passing them around friends and family.
Re: Colour - what exact purpose do people want it for? American comics & graphic novels certainly, but what else? Magazines? I'm curious.
Re: Price, it's simple really. Regular eInk screens are simply not expensive enough. We'd rather they cost four times as much and had color than see manufacturers working on the efficiencies of scale.
But honestly, I think those informed on the tech would suggest precisely what you mentioned. The only extensions beyond that are people who want to use these as more than a reader, m'thinks. Perhaps web browsing and other ordinary computing tasks? Though again, it'd be nice for us to focus on the refresh rates before using these for more than static viewing purposes.
Apologies for the condescension and snark. I'm fascinated by this tech and it's been getting solid coverage for over a year now. Yet people still come out in droves to say, "This is dumb. Why would someone buy this instead of a regular computer?" and the like. It grows old.
I have been loading up my Kindle with stuff from Gutenberg,.org
Gutenberg has books in .mobi format, which the Kindle 1 and 2 read without conversion.
Most of the people who complain about the Kindle are people who do not read books for pleasure, anyway.
The people who love the Kindle (and the Sony book reader) are people who like reading books.
It is great to be able to get free Gutenberg stuff and to be able to read it in a nice format. It is too hard to read that stuff on a bright, computer screen.
Plastic Logic for the win.
Kindle in Australia would be nice
Assuming my Sony doesn't die on me, Plastic Logic or equivalent would definitely be the next logical upgrade for me. The ability to fold and store in a pocket would be brilliant as you're limited to a huge pocket or bag with the current crop. Ofttimes I'd like to take my Reader with me but in certain situations it's just not practical. I'm yet to resort to a manbag :-)
I have a sony 505 and absolutely love it! But i would instantly go for a A4 sized device as i read mainly tech manuals. The display now is a bit too small although doable. But i think they are on to something with businesses.
How a manufacturer cannot get the A4 memo is beyond me. It's so self evident and full of 'duuuh' that I'm not sure what the delay is.
Identify the needs of the A4 market aggressively and lock it in! Or your competitors will.
Thing is.. the A4 "market" is almost entirely manual and text book based. A field where the current e-readers are rubbish.
Give it a few more years.
I love my Kindle 2 except for the difficulty in viewing illustrations. I'm a history buff. History means battles means maps. They are nearly impossible to view. Various well defined shades of grey would help. But as is, I can't tell one army from another.
Drop the keyboard already!
Well, lets see. Samsung is introducing OLED technologies this year. Apple is one of Samsung's largest customers and tends to buy a ton of 'first orders' for memory.
What would you put in a 10 inch or 7 inch iPod Slate?
I'd put in a million to one static contrast panel if i could. I could adjust it for the proper contrast to work on movies, web, graphics and uh... BOOK READER.
There's no reason OLED can't get the tones optimal for a reader.
That's my take on things. I don't expect the apple product to be very affordable though. It will probably 'link' to the iphone. You'll have both, as obviously, your not going to hold a page sized slate to your head to talk.